Home · Politics · Sep 25 archive
Nikole Hannah-Jones Writes About Regret Over Daughter's Education
Confirmed
In Short: Nikole Hannah-Jones, known for the 1619 Project, wrote about her regret over sending her daughter to underperforming schools.
Nikole Hannah-Jones, best known for the 1619 Project, has written about her regret over sending her daughter Najya to underperforming public schools in Brooklyn.
In a recent essay, Hannah-Jones detailed her decision to send Najya to schools with poor academic outcomes, despite having the means to send her to better schools or private institutions.
Hannah-Jones explained that her commitment to integration and equity led her to believe that her presence in these schools could help improve them.
Hannah-Jones noted that her daughter's academic performance suffered, with her belief in her math abilities being a facade due to inadequate instruction.
The principal at Najya's school was often unresponsive, and Hannah-Jones felt her efforts to improve the situation were largely futile.
Hannah-Jones acknowledged that her daughter confronted her about the decision, asking why she had not been sent to a better school.
Najya, now a high school junior, expressed frustration over her lack of preparation for competitive high schools.
Hannah-Jones wrote that she is 'overcome with regret' over her decision, which she sees as a failure to balance her values with her daughter's educational needs.
Critics, such as Megyn Kelly, have harshly criticized Hannah-Jones, questioning her motives and integrity.
Hannah-Jones' essay highlights the tension between her commitment to social justice and her role as a parent.
What this adds
The essay adds a personal dimension to the debate over school choice and integration.
Critics argue that Hannah-Jones' actions were misguided, while supporters see her as a brave voice for social justice.
What's confirmed
- Nikole Hannah-Jones, best known for the 1619 Project, has written about her regret over sending her daughter Najya to underperforming public schools in Brooklyn.
- In a recent essay, Hannah-Jones detailed her decision to send Najya to schools with poor academic outcomes, despite having the means to send her to better schools or private institutions.
- Hannah-Jones explained that her commitment to integration and equity led her to believe that her presence in these schools could help improve them.
- Hannah-Jones noted that her daughter's academic performance suffered, with her belief in her math abilities being a facade due to inadequate instruction.
- The principal at Najya's school was often unresponsive, and Hannah-Jones felt her efforts to improve the situation were largely futile.
- Hannah-Jones acknowledged that her daughter confronted her about the decision, asking why she had not been sent to a better school.
- Najya, now a high school junior, expressed frustration over her lack of preparation for competitive high schools.
- Hannah-Jones wrote that she is 'overcome with regret' over her decision, which she sees as a failure to balance her values with her daughter's educational needs.
- Critics, such as Megyn Kelly, have harshly criticized Hannah-Jones, questioning her motives and integrity.
- Hannah-Jones' essay highlights the tension between her commitment to social justice and her role as a parent.
What's still developing
- In the piece, Hannah-Jones explains her zealous fight for “integration,” which required sending her daughter to some of the worst public schools in New York City.
- This challenged Hannah-Jones’s entire worldview and led her to question her parenting ability.
- “Segregation” continues if there are disparities in educational outcomes: We live in a “system so devastatingly unequal that it puts at odds trying to be a good person with trying to be a good parent.” Even if we accept Hannah-Jones’s interpretation of “equity” as a net positive for society, this abstraction has to stop at her child.
- When Najya was in third grade, Hannah-Jones decided to visit her school at lunchtime and found that kids were sitting there with \u201Cno lunch and no adult supervision.\u201D Other kids were \u201Crunning wild, chasing, hitting, and pushing each other while the teacher\u2019s aides and cafeteria workers stood by looking bored.\u201D At a private school this would be an emergency that led to immediate firings.
- At the time, Hannah-Jones’ rationale was that bad schools are caused by a lack of upper-middle-class parents.
- By Hannah-Jones’ own account, her presence didn’t lift up the Brooklyn school; the school dragged down her daughter, and barely seemed to notice she was there.
- Hannah-Jones was left trying to lobby an absentee principal who “regularly wouldn’t engage with [her] or wasn’t in the building at all.” It is a sad reality of the modern era that when an ideological opponent admits they made a terrible mistake, most people are tempted to kick them while they\u2019re down.
- The most crucial misjudgment Hannah-Jones and her husband made was underestimating the difficulty of collective action.
- Hannah-Jones writes that in the first grade, her daughter, always bright, said she didn’t like school because of lunchroom chaos, in which students would fight unsupervised.
- Hannah-Jones discovered that teachers failed to look at her daughter’s classwork, much less correct it.
- According to Hannah-Jones, Najya complained that disruptive students were showered with praise for the barest displays of restraint, while she and other academically inclined students dawdled.
- Just as a religious family might send a child to a parochial school, Hannah-Jones saw education as a way to transmit her social-justice values.